J.D’s Top 5 Albums Of 2015

2015 was a strong year for artists, both on the charts and under the radar. I found something exciting to check out nearly every week. But who has the time to read a list of 25 or 50 dope records? I don’t have the minutes in a day to create one, and if we’re keeping to 100%, you don’t have the patience to get through it. Year-end lists are meant to create some dialog, some Twitter beef, some hate mail. So let’s get it. Here are my top 5 most influential records of 2015. Tweet, tweet, tweet.

Vince Staples- Summertime ’06

Staples created a haunting, sparse, cinematic soundscape of an emerging and progressive young West Coast with Summertime ’06, the most fascinating double offering of 2015. It’s packed with twenty bangers that should keep King Kendrick pushing his pen with real purpose to keep his crown. Staples provides a chilling glimpse of his world, which isn’t too different from urban youth across our country, yet his take is blatantly anxious and brimming with an urgency to get up, get out, and get something.

Yelawolf- Love Story

Yelawolf’s entire career has been plagued with a certain identity crisis. The Shady Records resident oddball isn’t quite a b-boy and is too street to be entirely country. So his decision to create a sprawling sophomore record to marry those styles while simultaneously clearing his head was a perfectly executed move. Love Story is a standout project from a man who is artistically capable of balancing a palate of sounds that runs the gamut from Outkast to Johnny Cash.

Pusha T- Darkest Before Dawn

I’m not putting numbers on the board, but if this list was ranked I’d be hailing King Push. Darkest Before Dawn is an apparent prelude to his upcoming 2016 efforts, and it still shits on the entire game. Push is a master chameleon. He’s able to adapt to the trends of hip-hop traffic without compromising for a second. Don’t search the project for a weak spot. Shots fired at all the rappers who’d rather be more famous than rich. Amen.

Kendrick Lamar- To Pimp a Butterfly

A stylized masterpiece of modern hip hop? A vanity project from the game’s most celebrated star? A clever play on the title of Harper Lee’s classic novel rooted in the historically racist south? Who knows. Chop it up how you want, but To Pimp a Butterfly is Kendrick’s coming out party. We knew he was more soul than a soldier, but this record is a flat out mind-bender of jazz, rap, funk, and straight up West Coast flavor. He continues to raise the bar with each release, creating a ceiling that’s going to be awfully hard to transcend.

Earl Sweatshirt- I Don’t Like S**t, I Don’t Go Outside

Earl is the perfect villain. The anti-rapper who’s a perplexing character with more natural feel on the mic than plenty of 20-year vets. I Don’t Like S**t, I Don’t Go Outside is a record Earl had to get out of his system. Stress, massive expectations, and Odd Future super-stans were all factors in a final product that shapes up as a dense, hyper-personal collection of thoughts and sounds. Play “Faucet” in a pair of headphones to peep where this kid’s head was at while writing the record. When it’s done, play it again. The youth of America.

Runners-Up

Mac Miller- GO:OD AM

Mac has yet to find a foothold for a persona that will stick. He tried the stoner thing. He turned to trippy, drug-laced raps for a mixtape or two. But on GO:OD AM he returned to what turned our heads in the first place; clever wordplay and careful songwriting. His classic is still a project or two away, but it’s coming.

A$AP Rocky- At. Long. Last. A$AP

Rocky has always managed to captivate me with each release. He’s an NYC kid, a fashion killer, and a ladies man with a never ending blunt in hand. With At. Long. Last. A$AP he took his namesake (Rakim) to heart, unleashing his most rappity-rap shit to date. The record is packed with memorable moments but is ultimately weighed down by its pursuit of greatness.

My name is J.D, the music fanatic, writer, blogger, and educator. I've been in love with hip hop since Bishop got too close to the ledge. If it moves me, I'll cover it. I've written an unpublished novel, created Shiny Glass Houses, and had my work featured on the Bloglin for Mishka NYC. I'm lurking in the shadows on twitter @ThexGlassxHouse. Read. Comment. Get money.

Today South Florida artist CameronAirborne, drops the music video for his song “No Cuffin” featuring buzzing rapper Jackboy. In the Andrew Colton directed music video, listeners get a hazy and psychedelic visual to go along with CameronAirborne‘s catchy Summer bop.

“The beat was a collaborative track with K.E. on the Track. He laced up the beat and I got Jackboy on there for the hook too. It’s just real catchy, we shot the video for the track and it just a had kind of club or pop vibe to it. It’s definitely a Summer song and its very upbeat and kind of fast paced, it def keeps the head nodding.”

Combing elements of guitar and singing, CameronAirborne has found a lane doing his own thing combining it all with rap after performing in a band early on in his career.

“I play guitar because I had played in a band before and I ended up rapping. It gave me stage experience and the drive to want to do my own thing.” CameronAirborneexplained. “I branched out and started doing my own music and I always wrote my own poetry so transitioning to rapping was natural. I can make trap music, I can make pop catchy sounding music and I can make real lyrical stuff too. When I put out a projects I try to put out a little something for everyone to take something away from the project.”

Although most of the world has been shut down over the past few months with COVID-19, Cameron Airborne remains busy producing instrumentals and gearing up for his own studio where he will be able to record artists there.

“Im just on the independent grind, I’m opening up my own studio and that way I can make money, just recording and doing sessions,”CameronAirborneexplained. “I’ve been producing my own instrumentals and so I have a lot of music lined up and some big features tucked away for the right time to present them.”

Recently Dallas, Texas rapper Fat Yunginnand Cash Money Records are happy to announce the Pleasant Grove rapper’s signing to their iconic rap label. Pictured above with Birdmanand Ronald “Slim” Williams, this young upstart has officially inked a deal with one of the most iconic Hip-Hop/Rap labels in the history of music.

First getting notoriety for his song “Sack Up” in 2016, Fat Yunginn says he always wanted to sign with Cash Money Records and that it’s a “perfect match.”

“I grew up off Cash Money, I grew up listening to them. I ain’t gonna lie I always wanted to be on Cash Money and I always wanted to sign with them. I don’t really go off what other people say or what they do and say about Cash Money. Birdman came up talking about he was the #1 Stunna and if you listen to my flow you can hear my ooh flow fits with this brand. Sack Season / Cash Money Records. It’s a perfect match.”

Raised in Dallas’ Pleasant Grove, Fat Yunginn drew inspiration from his father’s passing and from there began to take off on the strip club scene in Dallas.

“I’m from Dallas Texas, from a hood out there called Pleasant Grove. I started doing music once my Pops passed away and I just took to music and it was just going up from there. Once I dropped Sack Up it went crazy in the strip clubs and so after that I started taking it more seriously. One night I went in the strip club and tipped a couple of females and this big DJ in Dallas named DJ Hit That began spinning it. It took off from there and I did my first paid show off that song,” Fat Yunginn said. “As far as Dallas and the surrounding areas I was able to perform Sack Up out there and I was able to build up my brand. We’re called Sack Season Ent, but we call ourselves Sack Babies. Anything that has to do with a sack of money we about that. Thats basically how they know me around here.”

“I got another song called Show My Assthats another club banger with YellaBeezy and we gonna release that one through Cash Money. I got the visual for my next track, it’s just to get my sound out there a little more and my ooh flow. Its my ad lib you can hear in a lot of my songs. Then I have another with Rylo Rodriguez and another one with Euro Gotti. I got a lot of unreleased music I can’t wait for the fans to hear it,” he added. “I can get in there and start from scratch, the ooo flow, I have fun in the studio. When I came up with the ooh flow I was just playing around people have just been gravitating towards it.”

This week Gabby and Madi serves up their rendition of K.P. and Envyi’s classic hit “Swing My Way”, with a 2020 spin by producer justdoitBRISK. The teen duo have been blazing new trails with young audiences, delivering single after single in recent months. Check out their latest, “Swing My Way” here.

Ohio’s Ill NyQuil collaborates with 10cellphones to show the world what it looks like when Ohio and North Carolina come together in their latest single “Night.” Catering to the vibe enthusiasts, “Night” is available on all platforms.